Pelham Memorial High School senior Tess Darrow represented New York State at an international conference for D.A.R.E., or Drug Abuse Resistance Education, in Orlando, Florida, from July 10-12.

The 31st annual D.A.R.E. international training conference was attended by state and national representatives, law enforcement officers and supervisors, teachers, parents and D.A.R.E. instructors. D.A.R.E. programs are active in all 50 states and about 50 countries, said Darrow.

The purpose of the conference was to set the D.A.R.E. curriculum for the 2018-19 school year. The programs introduced at the conference include a suicide prevention program for high schoolers and an opioid prevention program, according to Darrow. She spent the conference setting up rooms for speeches, making announcements to the attendees, attending lessons and learning more about the organization itself.

Darrow said that the curriculum has changed significantly over the years. “The D.A.R.E. of today is not the D.A.R.E that I went through as a kid,” she said. There are now different curriculums based on age level.

Darrow thinks the programs are more efficient when they can be simple for the youth and informative for high schoolers. “It’s not just like, ‘Drugs are bad and if you do them you’re a bad person or a criminal,’” she said. “It talks more about why people do drugs and why drugs are not a solution to problems.”

Darrow has been involved with D.A.R.E. since the beginning of her sophomore year. Now she represents New York and is the highest ranking D.A.R.E. student in the state at the high school level. Tess said that the organization has dwindled in New York recently, so one of her biggest jobs as representative is to spur its growth in the state. One way to do this is by organizing police officers to complete D.A.R.E training or to come to a school.

“D.A.R.E. having a police officer in the classroom is really beneficial,” said Darrow. “Having that officer-student connection builds relationships.” Darrow added that it’s important to have an officer show that drug-abuse resistance is meant to truly protect students.

“My biggest thing is caring about kids,” Darrow said. She has led and attended classes with children as young as elementary school and greatly appreciates the idea of teaching them how to be wise in these scenarios.

As a fellow student, Tess said that she enjoys speaking directly to kids that she works with. “I don’t want to see the next generation of youth fall victim to illegal, hard, drugs.”